You can do a loan consolidation and shave off .25%, but other than that you can't really do much. My wife and I have a close, personal hookup. We were able to consolidate both of our student loan debt, pay interest only for the first five years, and then the loan goes into term for five years. It's a pretty large sum and those last five years will be brutal, but well worth it in savings.

quote:We were able to consolidate both of our student loan debt, pay interest only for the first five years, and then the loan goes into term for five years. It's a pretty large sum and those last five years will be brutal, but well worth it in savings.

Yup, this is financial awesomeness. Who do I need to suckle to get this deal?

quote:Getting hit with 6.8% is stealing when the government borrows at .25% How can I lower my rate? Is there a way I can actually get it lowered?

Ya, only consolidation could lower it that I know of. In that case, you would need some other loans with lower percentages to weigh it down. So basically, 6.8 is the rate you're gonna be stuck with from what I know.

My wife and I had the opportunity to consolidate our loans as well, but after talking it over with a few people decided it was t a very smart move. If one of us were to die, the other would have the burden of both loans. Same goes for if one of us left the other. Someone would be stuck with a whole lot of student debt. We started out with about $100k in student loans and have finally gotten it down to $15k. Seemed like it would never go down, but we just kept plugging along and eventually got it down.

re: Refinance Student Loans(Posted by txtiger21 on 1/25/13 at 12:22 pm to LaFBfan)

quote:If you have a federal loan and you're on an income-based repayment (IBR) plan, you can have the balance of your student loan forgiven after 25 years, or 10 years if you work in public service. All Federal student loans are eligible except, student loans in default, Parent PLUS loans, and Parent PLUS consolidation loans. Your monthly student loan payments are capped based on your income and family size. For example, family of 3 with an annual income of $45,000 would only pay $157 a month on an IBR plan. You can apply for IBR by contacting the lender servicing your loan. Loans taken out after July 22, 2014 on the IBR plan will be forgiven after 20 years instead of 25 years. President Obama recently announced plans to speed up that date to 2012. Visit the Federal Student Aid website and IBR Info for more information.

So you must be paying your loans off to get them forgiven. (ie you can only get them forgiven if you don't make much money)

Let me tell ya, if you have 150k in loans or more, the chances you ever make enough to break out of IBR are slim to none. It isn't even a concern for those who think they may not be eligible 20 years from now.

quote:Why would anyone take out over 150k in loans? That is just insane.

Its called a Top 50 law school and the illusion of grandeur.

Not to mention the market tanked as we were enrolling. It was somewhat justifiable when firm jobs were being handed out before you even started your 3L year.

The result, as of now, is a job that pays me 40K and rising more than what I would have made with my undergrad degree. However, there were 3 years I wasn't working of lost income. Tempered by loan repayments of course.